Hello everyone I have a couple of newspaper articles from about 1858 concerning the annual dinner of the Wareham and Purbeck Labourers and Servants friend Society. I have seen other mentions of Labourers Friend Societies on the web but still haven't worked out exactly what they are. Are they the same as a "Friendly Society" or different? They appear to have annual dinners where the gentry give a speech consisting of "words of encouragement" etc to the labourers and then give prizes. regards Caroline Western Australia -- I use Archive CD Books to help with my research http://www.archivecdbooks.org